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It’s not news that almost anything Apple is hot (iTunes hate notwithstanding). What is news is who’s buying this Apple gear and for what purpose.

Case in point: Last week, a long-time source called from the Manhattan Apple store. Why? Because his year and a half old HP PC “crapped out.” (I believe that was the technical term used.) The screen was about to go and rather than hassling with HP’s warranty and repair service, this guy–a hedge fund guru and tech follower–sucked what files he could onto a USB stick, and almost on impulse, decided to do something different.

The 57th street store was mobbed with what looked-to-be other business professionals. Not kids, either. In his training session, he said the workstations were packed with other baby boomers, peering through reading glasses at their new laptop screens.

These are the kinds of people whose companies typically provide with a free Dell, HP, Toshiba or Lenovo Windows laptop. And yet, here they were.

“All of that was business lost to HP, lost to Microsoft,” he noted. (To be fair, he did buy Office for the Mac, but still…his will be one of a grwowing number of Windows-free households..) This despite the Windows 7 hype storm.

Now as speculation swirls around Apple’s iCloud announcement, one’s has to wonder–again–why nothing Microsoft (or HP or Dell ) engenders this sort of excitement. When was the last time someone absolutely had to have an HP Pavillion?

The primary reason to keep buying WIndows–face it–is to stay legal and avoid the piracy police.

This is not a good thing for Microsoft. Or HP. Or Dell.

Let us know what you think about the story; email Barbara Darrow, Senior News Director at bdarrow@techtarget.com.

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